I never thought I was that bad when it came to getting on the scales, seriously I’m not one of those people that have to weigh every day or freak out when the scale moves up or down a bit here and there. There are PLENTY of people out there who are like this, males and females alike and I wish it was something that didn’t exist but it’s something that appears to be ingrained in our attitudes which likely stems from attempting to conform to the societal ‘norms’.
I know all the theory and that weight gains can be due to a number of reasons, not all of them mean that you have gone backwards in your attempt at getting healthier. Weight gains can happen literally within the course of a few hours, often you weigh more in the evening that when you first wake up. This makes sense as when you first wake up your body hasn’t had any food or water in a while and has broken these down while you sleep whereas towards the end of the day you have had (well I hope you’ve had) breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as hydrated yourself.
Some people hold on to weight depending on what food they have eaten during the day (salt, sugar, gluten are some examples depending on the individual person) and then of course your bowel movements come in to play as well (sorry someone had to bring it up!).
Then of course there is the old adage that muscle weighs more than fat (which makes no sense, 2kg of muscle is the same as 2kg of fat – they are still both 2kg). However I know what they mean when they say this, fat takes up more surface area than muscle so in the same space as you had 2kg of fat if you turned it into muscle you might have say 2.5kg of muscle and therefore a .5kg increase on the scales (these figures are just made up I’m not saying that you get 2.5kg of muscle for every 2kg of fat loss).
So back to the title of this post – Why I am hiding the scales…
A few weeks back one of my colleagues borrowed our scales to weigh his luggage as he was going back to Melbourne he had them for a few days and then I went on bereavement leave and then ended up getting sick so was away from the office for just over a week in total and didn’t have the scales.
I would often find myself heading in to the bathroom to go toilet or have a shower and go to jump on the scales and then be reminded that they weren’t there and that I couldn’t do it. It felt strange but it didn’t really bother me just a weird feeling that oh yeah they aren’t here that’s right, continue on with life.
After we got the scales back the first thing I did was strip down (because who wants to measure with clothes on which add to the weight) and see where I was at. It was the middle of the day and slightly higher than where I usually am, however I usually weigh in the morning so no big surprise really.
However, this isn’t where my issue came in. My issue came later than day when I was getting ready for a shower and I looked in the mirror and wasn’t happy with what I saw, I felt frumpy and not happy with what I saw. I thought about it when I was in the shower (I’m sure some of my best thinking comes out in the shower – anyone else?) and thought back over the past week and a half and realised that I hadn’t once had any bad thoughts about my body the whole time I didn’t have the scales. Okay sure I don’t have the abs I want staring back at me when I look in the mirror but at the same time I was amazed at what my body can do (in the gym and keeping my going through such a tough week) and I actually felt happy with myself.
That was a bit of a weird moment for me as I realised that I do in fact place importance on the number on the scales yet I just tell myself that I don’t. It made me wonder what life would be like if I didn’t have the scales in the bathroom – I never had scales for years until I decided it was time to start losing weight. In reality we don’t need to scales to tell us if we are making progress, all we need is a mirror. After all your body tells the true story of what is going on, can you see the changes in the mirror or are your pants getting tighter or looser?
I didn’t like the way the scales made me feel and I’m glad I realised this now. So this is why I am hiding the scales. I will still take my weight every now and again, every 2 weeks to a month or so just to see how things are progressing. I will still be taking my body fat measurements and tape measurements every month – 6 weeks or so as I feel you can see the results of your hard work a bit better with these methods. I talked a bit more about the Subjectivity of measuring progress on an earlier blog post.
I have asked the b/f to hide the scales from me, which he has a good point would be a pain in the butt in our small apartment (and he uses them as well) so instead he is going to hide the batteries from me and only let me have them every now and again just to check progress in that department as sometimes knowing the number on the scales is a good thing.
Hiding the batteries will be good as I will get used to seeing the scales every time I walk into the bathroom yet know that there is no point standing on them as they won’t give me any information which should help to un-wire the brain of the compulsion to stand on them when I go in the bathroom.
So there you have it, that is why I am hiding the scales!
Have you ever hidden your scales before? Do you even have scales? What are your thoughts on this topic?
Totally agree with everything you’ve said. I lost a bunch of weight earlier in the year by eating nothing but clean, unprocessed food for a month – and while I lost a good few kgs, it was nothing compared to how I felt. My tummy was flat and toned and I could feel where I’d slimmed down all over my body. I’ve now realised that that is the true decider on whether I’m being healthy and looking after myself — the scales can say whatever they want but it will make no difference if I don’t feel great.
Definitely agree with everything you’ve said! I think having the scales there makes some of those negative thoughts appear even though you don’t want them too at times, I guess we’ve become programmed to associate the number on the scale with how we feel. It’s a matter of breaking that attachment I think.
Another agreement from me. I lost lots of weight when I took up running. I’ve not done as much running but I now teach Group Power classes so have put on a lot more muscle. I’m about 6kgs heavier than when I was at my lightest. I’m a little bit ‘bigger’ but not 6kgs worth to look at (I don’t think). I’m about to start building up my cardio again to train for a half ironman so it will be interesting to see what this does to my body/weight alongside my Power training!